


Lives on the Ground

by elrhiarhodan



Series: Elrhiarhodan's 2019 Personal Writing Challenge [5]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Civil Servants, Alternative Universe - Not Spies, Carrying for Each Other, Chicken Soup and Dumplings, Hurt/Comfort, James is a Caretaker, M/M, Married James and Percival, No One Dies (at least no one we know), Percilot - Freeform, Schmoop, alternative universe, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 05:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18934039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/pseuds/elrhiarhodan
Summary: Percival Morton is a senior inspector with the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and has been called in to head up an investigation into a massive airline crash at Heathrow.  It's cold and he's got a long day ahead of him.  Good thing James shows up with coffee and a biscuit.





	Lives on the Ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kyele](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyele/gifts).



> In my on-going attempt to quell the you suck voice, I solicited a prompt from my dear friend and other partner in crime, Kyele. She gave me Percilot and "commercial plane crash" (Kyele may have a thing for air disasters, I don't inquire too deeply).
> 
> Please excuse all procedural boo-boos, I don't think there are any plot holes, and I'm thinking this one isn't quite so terrible, for all that it had been written in less than an hour.

Percival surveys the wreckage and focuses on his job, not on the bits and pieces of lives lost – the singed teddy bear face up in the snow, the pillow in the tropical floral pillow case so incongruous on the barren ground, the notebook with its pages blowing back and forth, only to settle into stillness when the wind dies. His mind processes all of these things, but they are not the focus. He's looking for bits and pieces of the plane that fell out of the sky just after takeoff, killing all of the passengers and crew.

The news will focus on the "black boxes" (a misnomer, since they are actually brightly colored to aid in retrieval), but the flight data recorders are only going to tell them what happened in each moment, not necessarily why it happened. It could be something as simple as a bolt with microscopic cracks in it or a stress fracture in a critical part of the airframe. He and his team won't know until they've gathered up every single scrap and reconstructed the jet.

"Any guesses?"

Percival turns and glares at the man standing next to him. "You know it doesn't work like that.

James sighs, "Of course I know, but for the record, I have to ask."

Without even a by your leave, Percival grabs the cup of coffee James is holding and drains it. It's a disgusting confection – more sugar and syrup and whipped cream than actual coffee – but it's hot and he's been standing outside in sub-freezing temps since before the sun had broken the horizon.

"I guess you'll want my breakfast, too." James holds out an uneaten oatmeal raisin biscuit and Percival doesn't hesitate.

"Thanks." Percival wolfs down the biscuit and tries not to gag at the cloying stickiness. "You're going to end up as an insulin-dependent diabetic if you keep eating like this."

"Actually, love, we both will, if you keep stealing my food."

Percival has to agree, since this isn't the first and won't be the last time he helps himself to James' horrible choice of coffee and biscuits. And the truth is, while his husband does have a sweet tooth, he mostly manages to keep it under control. Besides, James had likely brought both the oversweet coffee and the biscuit deliberately, knowing that Percival would need both the calories and the carbs for the long day ahead. 

"I've got to get going, the dead aren't going to autopsy themselves." James _doesn't_ give Percival a kiss – that would be the height (or is that the depth?) of unprofessionalism, but he does squeeze Percival's shoulder before heading over to the area reserved for the medical examiner's team. Given the sheer number of the dead, that team is almost as large as the one from AAIB.

This isn't the first time that their professional lives have butted up against their personal ones. Hell, Percival had met James at a crash site investigation seventeen years ago – he'd been a junior investigator on his first crash scene and James had been fresh out of medical school, with a gruesome sense of humor and an even worse sense of fashion. It had been love at first sight.

Over the years, they've bumped into each other at crash investigations with surprising frequency. James' career trajectory had run parallel to Percival's – they'd both ended up as seniors in their respective agencies – which explains why they'd been both called to what will likely be a very high profile case. Percival has done his share of press conferences (James often teases him about his camera-ready good looks) and James does quite well on the witness stand in inquests and the inevitable civil cases that follow.

A glint of something catches Percival's eye, distracting him from thoughts of his husband. It looks like a shard of metal. He exchanges his cold-weather gloves for a pair of nitriles, drops an evidence marker on the ground next to it and takes pictures from every angle before placing the shard into an evidence bag. This process goes on for endless hours and will likely be repeated for the next few days, until everything is collected and the reconstruction can begin.

The only break Percival gets is when his bosses call him back to the briefing room in Terminal Two to give the usual dog and pony show. After he gets done not answering the reporters stupid questions, someone shoves a sandwich at him at, and then a thermos filled with seriously bad coffee. It'll keep him warm and awake for a few more hours.

Sometime around two AM, he leaves the crash site; the collection work continues and there will be reams of evidence to catalog by the time he returns in four or five hours. 

Percival is not surprised that James is awake and waiting for him in the living room. "What do you want first? Food or shower?"

Actually, Percival just wants to fall asleep in his husband's arms, but he can't afford to ignore his body – not just yet. "What have you got?"

"Chicken soup with dumplings. The kind you like."

Percival had thought he was too tired to be hungry, but as soon as James tells him what's on offer, his stomach rumbles.

"Come on, love. Let's get you settled." James pulls off Percival's coat and steers him into the kitchen. Percival can smell the soup – it's clearly been made fresh and kept on a simmer. 

Percival sits and James puts a bowl in front of him and then sits down in his usual seat to watch him eat. James reaches out and covers Percival's free hand. "You're trembling. Was it that bad?"

Percival sighs, "No worse than usual, I'm just tired."

"We both have long days ahead of us." Just as Percival has to supervise the investigation, James will be supervising several hundred autopsies. Their lives won't be their own for a long while.

Percival finishes the soup and decline the offer of a second bowl. While James puts the food away, Percival showers off the stench of disaster and tries not to see the pieces of the cabin, with the dead bodies of the passengers still strapped into their seats. Most of the time, Percival can compartmentalize, focusing on the science and engineering, not the human elements in the equation.

He lets the hot water wash away the tears and turns it off. Percival can see James hovering just outside the shower doors, a towel in his hand, and the sadness is replaced by a surge of the love and gratitude he'd felt the day this man had agreed to marry him and keep him forever. Percival steps out of the shower and lets James care for him, drying him off, helping him into his sleepwear, pulling him into bed. Percival wraps his arms around James and breathes deep. 

James nuzzles his cheek and Percival can feel James' smile against his skin. 

James whispers, punctuating his words with a tender kiss. "I love you so much."

Percival kisses his husband back and says, "I know."

 

__

FIN


End file.
